Beyond Exchange: The Gift

August 1 + 4, 6-8pm ET

Lukas Moe

A century ago, Marcel Mauss argued that capitalism relies everywhere on gift economies. This course explores this aparent contradiction. Reading authors such as David Graeber, Georges Bataille, and W.E.B. DuBois, we will discuss questions such as: How do ideas of generosity and reciprocity persist in a society defined by contracts and debts? What would a non-capitalist culture of the gift look like?

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Lukas Moe is a scholar of American poetry and modernism. His academic writing can be accessed here, and other essays at Jacket2, Social Text and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is a lecturer at San José State University.